Former SEAL Team 6 Member Says He’s ‘Relieved’ After Rescue of Downed Crew in Iran

As the U.S. and Iran work to cement a ceasefire, with peace talks set ‌to start on Saturday, a former member of SEAL Team 6 and a decorated combat veteran is weighing in on the conflict and how close the U.S. came to losing several military fighters.

“We don’t know what’s really going to happen right now,” said retired Navy veteran Donn Mann, author of the new book, "The Navy SEAL Playbook", in an interview with Military.com. “I don’t believe Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants a ceasefire. He is all about destroying Iran, and right now, he has President Trump on his side. This war is just not going very well.”

Mann was especially concerned after the downing and then daring rescue of the crew of an F-15E Strike Eagle, shot down over Iran on April 3. The emergency began when an Iranian missile hit a two-seater F-15E, which bore the call sign DUDE 44. The pilot and a weapons system officer, or WSO, were on board and managed to eject themselves. But they were down in hostile territory and isolated behind enemy lines, with their rescue beacons still active.

“In the U.S. Military, we do our very, very best to leave no man behind. It is our ethos,” said Mann. “Whatever the risk is you go after that person and rescue them."

President Trump Calls Rescue Mission Historic

In a televised press briefing at the White House on April 6, President Trump called the rescue mission “very historic” and added, “it’ll go down in the books.” He said within hours, the pilot was recovered with the help of 21 military aircraft that flew into hostile airspace, operating for seven hours in broad daylight and flying at such a low altitude they were being shot at by rifles.

“We have a helicopter that’s got a lot of bullets in it,” Trump said. “The flight crews and warfighters aboard those aircraft took extraordinary risks to rescue their fellow service members.”

But the rescue of the WSO took longer and was much more dire for both the downed soldier and the rescuers.

“We got the one pilot out pretty quickly, and that was a relief. But the colonel, when he went down, he was badly injured and had to quickly move away from the wreckage and up a mountain undetected,” said Mann. “He clearly practiced “Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape” or SERE training, which is what we rely on in combat. You have to do your best to hide out and get away. You just learn to survive.”

Iran Wanted Downed Airman as Bargaining Chip

Officials with the U.S. Defense Department said Iran was eager to capture the WSO, which would have given its government a bargaining chip to use against the U.S. government. Iran’s government offered a large bounty to capture the WSO, with Iranian soldiers on a mission to find him.

Deception tactics by the U.S. proved to be critical.

“That was a beautiful part of this operation, the deception,” said Mann. “Our commanders and rescuers used decoys and misinformation on the WSO’s whereabouts to send Iran in another direction, away from where the WSO was actually hiding. They made the Iranians believe he was already picked up. The CIA was a big part of that, they pulled off a deception operation that worked really well.”

Trump said the WSO followed his training, and despite his injuries, climbing up treacherous mountain terrain to reach a higher altitude, he was able to transmit his exact location. 

That’s when the U.S. military sent a second rescue wave of 155 aircraft, Trump said, including four bombers, 64 fighters, 48 refueling tankers, and 13 rescue aircraft, flying for seven hours in darkness. On the morning of April 4, the CIA confirmed the WSO was alive and hiding undetected in a mountain cave. Eventually, the WSO stood up from his cover and was spotted by the CIA.

But it was still a battle to reach the soldier. Trump said U.S. forces fought hard against Iranian forces near the WSO’s hideout while rescuers successfully retrieved him. DUDE 44 Bravo had been on the run, bleeding and alone, for nearly 48 hours.

“I wasn’t there, but I know the training and I know the danger involved in an operation like this,” said Mann. “In an ideal world, yes, this won’t happen again. But I don’t think we can sit back and stand down in a ceasefire with Iran, because there are just so many things that can still go wrong.”